Pastoral Medicine

Pastoral Medicine: Lecture 8

Schmidt Number: S-5932

On-line since: 27th March, 2008

LECTURE 8

Dear friends,

Yesterday we examined the human constitution
as far as it can be seen in human beings
themselves or in connection with their immediate environment. Now we
must go out beyond humanity. For everywhere humanity stands in some
relation to the forces in the universe, and one can only understand
these various relations if one explores the immense diversity of the
universe itself.

Just think, dear friends, how
manifold the forces in the universe are! Look at a growing plant, for
instance. Follow the growth of its stem upward from the earth's
surface, and the growth of its root downward. Right there are two
opposite tendencies within the plant: a striving upward and a
striving downward. And if today we were far enough along in
scientific research — so often used for less important matters
— to use it for such a thing as the growth of a stem upward and
the growth of a root downward, we would find the connections in the
universe that would then finally explain the totality: humanity and
the world, microcosm and macrocosm. For we would find that everything
connected with the stem's upward growth has some relation to the
unfolding of the sun's forces in the course of the day, in the course
of the year, even beyond the year. And we would find that everything
connected with the root's downward growth has some relation to the
moon's forces and the moon's changes. If therefore we look at a plant
properly, we already come to see through its form a relation between
sun and moon. We have, so to speak, to extract the simple image of a
plant from the whole universe, from all the forces in the
universe.

Someone who is really
observant will never see the root other than striving downward into
the earth and at the same time rounding itself. The root rounding
itself into the earth — that is the picture of the root that
one must have, the rounding form pushing into the ground.
(Plate V, left)
We must see
the stem differently as it unfolds in an upward direction. Someone
who combines sensitivity with observation will have the definite
feeling that the stem strives to stream out as a line. The root wants
to unfold in a rounding, circular direction; the stem wants to unfold
in a linear direction. That is the archetypal form of the plant. And
in the linear striving upward we must see the presence of sun forces
on the earth. In the root's striving toward roundness we must see the
presence of moon forces on the earth.

Plate VClick image for large view

Now let us look
further. We think of the sun as being at a great height and of the
plant as streaming to reach it. But the plant does more than just
reach upward; it reaches out in width, it creates peripheries. And we
find within its upward striving that something else is active, at
first just at its top in the blossoms we find the forces of Venus
working with the sun forces. Then as blossoms unfold below, as leaves
come, moving inward from the periphery, we find the forces of Mercury
working. On the one hand if we want to understand the structure of
the plant as it pushes toward the Sun, we must see that the sun
forces are helped by the forces of Venus and Mercury.

On the other hand we
must realize that these forces alone would not be able to form the
plant. With them alone, the plant-being would in a certain sense only
attain a compact, solid form. For it to unfold as one sees it, for
instance, in the most extreme example in a tree, there are forces
working everywhere counter to the Venus and Mercury forces: namely,
the forces of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Thus in addition to the
basic polarity of sun activity and moon activity, there is also the
activity of all the other planets in the universe.
(Plate V, left)

In the plant you have
the entire planetary system in front of you. It is right there on the
earth. And perhaps it is not so ridiculous that a scholar — a
half or three-quarters scholar as Paracelsus
[Note 11]
was — made such a statement as this: “When you eat a plant
you're eating the entire planetary system. For all those forces are
contained in it.” Paracelsus said it like this: With the plant
you eat the whole heaven.” The world is indeed formed in such
manifold variety that one does have in one's immediate environment
the forces of the entire macrocosm — in growth, in structure,
in the disposition of all living things.

Now let us get back to
the human being. We showed yesterday that one can go from the area of
lung breathing to a higher area where there is a finer inhalation.
And we discovered that this finer inhalation carries karmic streams
in from the past. We can go still further. If we have working into
the human being what I would like for the moment to call a refined
breath stream,
(Plate V, right)
we can say the following: If one would unfold only
what lies in the astral body and ego, one would never reach the sun,
with the human constitution as it is at the present time. When one is
in the ego and astral body during sleep, one does not reach the sun
sphere. There is only darkness. If one were to live in the astral
body and ego without any connection to the etheric and physical
bodies, one would not come to the sun. How, then, does this
happen?

Let us consider first
what the situation is when the astral body and ego approach the
etheric body. In clairvoyance one can bring this condition about
fairly easily, by strengthening thinking — strengthening it by
very thorough, energetic meditation. Then it is easy to come to this
condition; it is the beginning of initiation. One slips down into the
etheric body but is not yet able to take hold of the physical body;
one remains in the etheric body. In this condition it is possible to
think very, very well. One sees nothing, hears nothing, but one can
think very well. Thinking is not in the least extinguished, but
seeing, hearing, and the other sense activities are suppressed. At
first, thinking remains the same, except that one can think more than
previously. One can think such thoughts as we are expressing here,
for instance thoughts about the macrocosm. Thinking becomes wider.
One knows clearly: “now I am in the etheric world.” Thus when
one is in the etheric body, one is truly in the world ether. One has
the clear experience of this: “I am in the spiritual world out of
which the sense world comes.” But one is not able to
differentiate between spiritual world and sense world, one is beyond
a differentiated sense world. The sun no longer shines, the stars no
longer shine, there is no moonlight. There is no longer a clear
distinction between the kingdoms of nature on the earth. A person
only has that faculty when down in the physical body in normal life
or in a higher stage of initiation. But in exchange for the blurring
of the contours of the sense world, there is a general spirituality,
the weaving life of the spirit.

If one goes further,
if one takes conscious hold of the physical body and begins to live
in the organs, the perceptions that had become dim or had vanished
begin to emerge again (with the exception of earthly forms) as spirit
entities. Where earlier in ordinary consciousness one had seen the
sun and then it had become dark, foggy, but had still been within the
general weaving spirituality, now there appear beings of the second
hierarchy. Now one can differentiate in the spiritual world. Moon and
stars appear again, but in their spiritual aspect: they are now
spiritual colonies — they can be called that, or something
similar. Now one understands how in ordinary everyday consciousness
humankind sees the sun, for instance, in its physical form, and the
same with other things, but when someone has entered consciously into
a physical body, and has actually taken hold of it in its spiritual
dimension, the sun is seen as a spiritual being, and the same with
the whole world. Now we know that with each sun ray shining down upon
us during the day, spirit is also entering us. Through every sense
experience spirit is entering us. We have therefore to regard the
higher, finer breathing as a breathing that is continuously
impregnated by spirit. And we perceive that the sun is living in
every sense perception that streams into us. It is indeed the spirit
of the sun, or the spirits of the sun. The sun is present in every
sense perception. In our finer breathing the sun force, the sun life
is streaming straight into us.

So you see the
relation humanity has to the sun. When a ray of light streams into
your eye, the sun spirit is streaming in with that ray of light. The
spirit of the sun is the substance of the finer breathing. With our
sense perceptions we breathe in the manifold ingredients of the
spiritual sun. You have there an important view of the human being
from one direction. As one unfolds in an etheric body,
(Plate V, yellow)
one develops
in the etheric body thinking — the thoughts of the universe.
These thoughts of the universe in which one finds oneself when living
consciously in an etheric body are at first devoid of warmth or cold,
devoid of tone. They are a kind of vague feeling in which one's
feeling of self merges with one's feeling of the macrocosm. But if
now one takes hold of the physical body, one enters into the spirit
of the sense perceptions. And the thoughts are infused from various
sides: through the eyes, the sun essence — thought — that
is breathed in is infused with color; through the ear, thought is
tinted with tone; through the organ of warmth, thought is tinted with
warmth or cold. There you have the cosmic relation of thought to
sense perception. Thought must be understood as preceding the sense
experience; then the sense experience comes through infusion, tinted
by the sun.

Humankind simply does
not realize that the sun-being streams into us with every sense
perception. And on the path of the sun, past karma streams in too. It
is by no means a childish image to think of the sun as a receptacle
of past karma. If we understand the human head properly, we must say
the spiritual sun rays stream in invisibly and are transformed as
they stream in into something physical, which then appears as merely
a physical attribute in the world of color, tone, warmth. And at the
same time, on the path of these sun rays that slip in through the
senses into the nerves, karma enters into us. That is one side of the
human being.

Now let us look at the
other side. Karma goes out at that place in the organism where the
lymph is, the place where everything is alive and active that has not
yet been drawn into the blood. There we find outgoing karma. What are
the paths of outgoing karma? To know that, we must acquaint ourselves
through spiritual science with the moon forces.

And now if we
gradually come from the etheric world to which we have become
accustomed and take hold of the physical body in its periphery, the
area of the senses, then all the life streaming in from the sun and
bringing our past karma with it appears to be bringing reproach, and
to be doing much to disturb us. But far more important than the
disturbing elements in our karma is this knowledge, this insight that
we can attain. It is by virtue of our past that we have become what
we now are. The life of our inner being is enriched by the perception
of the sun entering on the paths of the senses and nerves. If we can
separate ourselves from our karma and concentrate on the instreaming
forces of the spiritual sun, we will experience an infinite happiness
as we receive them. We will wish that the sun element were in us
perpetually; we cannot help longing for it. The sun element enters
into us lovingly if we wish it; it is what we know in physical life
in a weaker form as our active human love. This is the interplay of
sun activity with the human inner world, the loving penetration of
the sun into humans and into everything that wants to sprout and grow
and thrive in humans. The living sun rays enter lovingly. Here love
is not merely a soul-spiritual force: it is the force that calls
everything physical to germinate and sprout and grow, everything that
can be beneficial to humans in every way when they value it. This is
the force of which a human being is aware through direct outer
vision.

Now if one takes hold
of the physical body in the other direction, in the direction of the
forces that develop the lymph and prepare it for entering into the
blood, one becomes aware of the activity of the moon. This is of
quite a different character. On the one hand we can say the spiritual
sun is active in the way we have indicated; on the other hand
the moon is active. When we work to grasp the process of the
lymph-blood formation inwardly, we find we are entering into the
activity of the moon. And we have the constant feeling that the moon
wants to take something away from us, to lift something out of us.
With the sun we had the feeling that it wants continually to give us
something. With the moon we have the feeling that it wants
continually to take something out of us. And if we are not alert
while we are observing the moon's activity, when we have consciously
taken hold of the physical body and are engrossed in the lymph-blood
formation, if we are not absolutely alert and in complete control of
our vision, suddenly the continuity is broken and standing there
before us is a spiritual being similar to ourselves but distorted,
almost a caricature of ourselves, a being we have brought to birth.
We would miss this emanation if we were not alert. But it does not
seem particularly strange to us as it separates from us and confronts
us. It is hardly more than an enhanced view of ourselves in a mirror.
When we look at ourselves in an ordinary mirror, that is the physical
world. When we see ourselves reflected in the etheric world by the
moon forces, that is a higher kind of mirroring.

Let us review the
whole process. There is nothing particularly amazing about it. But it
shows us that we are indeed connected with the universe. That the
moon is continually separating forces from us, which then it makes
independent, forces that were living in us and that then go out into
the spiritual world, streaming out into the macrocosm, constantly
carrying images out of us into the macrocosm. But now think how it
could be if such an image, which the moon forces are continually
producing in humanity and which then they want to take out of us to
carry into the distances of the world, if such an image were held
back in the human body and kept there. And not merely an image, an
abstraction, but a form permeated by forces.

How could such a form
be retained in the human being? We have the moon forces continually
striving to pull and draw the human image out. How could this form be
held back? It can remain in humans if the sun forces are brought in
deeply enough from another side. Then the form remains in the human
being; then an embryonic life begins. Fructification consists of
nothing else than that the sun forces are drawn down to where the
moon forces are active in the lymph. Thereby the image that would
otherwise go out takes hold of physical matter in the human body.
What otherwise is a mere image now takes on physical form. For this
to happen, sun forces combine with moon forces in the lymph system of
the human organism.
(Plate V)

Let us look at the
other side. We can also investigate the moon forces higher up: then
we find that the opposite happens. Then the human being is not formed
again in the human body, but the sun macrocosm is given form in the
human. Now we have a different view of the macrocosm. When the embryo
is formed, a physical world arises within the human being that must
come out. When on the other hand the moon forces activate their
desire nature — they want to capture and draw down the sun
forces — then the spirit in the universe comes into being
within the human. The spirit of the universe is engendered, a
spiritual embryo. Then the possibility is given for forming what must
come in from the spiritual world, what has been in the spiritual
world up to the time of a new earth-life and now comes in as spirit
embryo. Then, the union of the two takes place in the human
being.

If we explore these
things, we come to see that they are completely interwoven. Then we
have the true explanation of the human being's relation to the
universe.

Now help comes from
every direction. The sun activity that is uniting here with the moon
activity has the help of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. What, then, are
the tasks of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn? Recall, dear friends, what I
said yesterday. When the sun forces are going in, first they must
stop for the light; second, they must stop for the macrocosmic
chemism; third, they must stop for the life. The Saturn forces bring
about the stop for the light, the Jupiter forces in their wisdom
bring about the stop for the world chemism, the Mars forces the stop
for the life. There you have in detail the drawing-in of the sun
forces modified by the forces of the so-called outer planets.

From the opposite
direction you have the moon forces modified. When they work alone in
their full strength, they bring about the formation of the embryo,
that is, the physical formation. When they are less strong, they do
not enter into physical matter but stay in the direction of the
spirit, combining with the Venus forces of soul love. They can be
still weaker — when they unite with what comes from the other
side, the forces of Mercury, the divine messenger, who in ordinary
everyday earth-life leads the lower forces up to the higher.

Look at the two diagrams,
right and left.
(Plate V)
If we look out at the
plant world spread as it is around us, we find the sun, moon, and
stars everywhere. If we look within the human being, the sun, moon,
and stars are there too, in exact correspondence. When something
within is not in order, there is some trouble in the inner
collaboration of sun, moon, and stars. If we as therapists want to
restore it to order again, we must search in outer nature for a
corresponding Saturn activity, for instance, that will work
therapeutically on an unhealthy moon activity — and so forth.
It is all out there. You see people will begin to have confidence in
medicine again when they see that in the inner constitution the human
being comprises the whole world. This is the knowledge we would like
to bring to medicine again, knowledge it once had. The world will
only have its trust in medicine restored when these things are once
again understood.

But now let us look at
the other side. Look first at the moon activity in human beings. See
how it is striving continually to draw the human element out, to
carry it into the universe. Let the picture stand before us —
the human being striving to get out, wanting to be carried into the
universe. This must not be presented to humanity as an abstraction,
this shattering secret, but in picture form — the moon working
continually to lift human beings out of themselves, to show them
their relation to the macrocosm. The human being comes into
earth-life as an embryo within another human being. But when this
moon activity is enhanced by Venus and Mercury activity, then the
human being is born not physically, but spiritually. If we add to the
physical birth what we can invoke of Mercury and Venus activity, we
bring about a spiritual birth. The human being is then born
spiritually, outside, in the universe. We baptize the human
being.

The working of the
physical sun is always present in human beings. We can add to that
perception a consciousness that the spiritual sun also is active in
us, that on the paths of the physical-etheric sunlight, the light
rays, chemical rays and life rays, the spirit is also pouring in.
Spirit enters humans by way of the same paths that the
physical-etheric sun activity enters: through the senses. In the same
way that human beings perceive in everyday physical life the
physical-etheric activity of the sun, we enable them to perceive the
soul-spiritual activity of the sun. We give them communion.

Going out from the
communion, we find on the one hand what is related to the help the
sun is given: the darkening that relates to the light, the constant
nearness of death to life. We go to the outer planets that are
connected with the sun, and we add to the communion at the proper
moment the anointing.

Or we go into human
beings, and before they have any thought of the macrocosm, we hold
them fast in their inner life, wanting not merely to give them their
place as human beings in the macrocosm, but wanting to plant the
macrocosm in them — in picture form, so that it becomes a seed
developing in them. We give them confirmation.

If individuals
receiving the sacraments live in them with full consciousness, they
will be continually healed by them — healed of the universal
illness to which they succumb, or are in constant danger of
succumbing in statu nascendi
simply by reason of their having incarnated in the physical material
world. This is the priest's task.

It can also happen
that an individual is by nature continually
in statu nascendi of wanting to be free
in the spiritual world, wanting to get out of the physical world, yet
is obliged to remain in it during earth-life. And this causes in the
organism not a state of unspirituality but a state of
superspirituality, that is, illness. Medical measures must be
prescribed, the opposite pole to the sacraments, when illness
appears. This is the physician's task.

Thus we see on the one
side the spiritual healing of the priest, and on the other side the
priestly attitude of the physician, the physical healer. If we
recognize how their tasks can be coordinated, we have grasped the
significant connection between pastoral work and medical work. Then
pastoral medicine is not just a theory, but embraces the working
together of human beings.